Visually, Mario & Luigi: Brothership is a candy-coated affair that fits right in with the series. There's a cel-shaded quality to the models that reminds me a little of The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker.

Mario & Luigi: Brothership doesn't contain many boss fights, but every once in a while the game will throw a tough obstacle in the player's path. One of these is Gobblick, the guardian boss of the first Great Lighthouse Island. This island and boss unlock after the player completes all prior islands in the Lushgreen Sea.

This structure allows for two fundamental truths that keep the combat in Brothership engaging for most of its runtime. Watching Mario and Luigi do stuff together is really charming, and putting quick-time events in turn-based battles makes the proceedings feel just a bit more exciting. Stats don’t dictate whether an attack lands, you do.

Players don't want to be affected by status ailments for too long in Mario and Luigi: Brothership - here's how to get rid of them.

Mario & Luigi: Brothership includes many side quests which develop the world and often lead to comedic cutscenes. However, some of these sidequests have time limits which require the player to drop everything and complete a specific task. One of these quests is “Arc’s Secret”, which requires players to find Arc's lost spyglass.

I used to play Mario & Luigi RPGs on the Nintendo DS a long time ago. I always got a kick out of how they cleverly blended controls for both Mario and Luigi with button-mapping, making it feel like you were taking both on an adventure.

Brothership sticks to tradition in plenty of essential regards, but one major change is a big step forward for the series.

Legend of the Seven Stars, Mario, and his party members are given typical pieces of armor like cloaks and hats. In the Mario & Luigi series, the two plumbers have always received various overalls to equip.

Brothership has a pretty slow start. It takes a good 20 minutes to get through all of the cutscenes and intro dialogue that sets up Mario and Luigis adventure, but even when you finally get control of the brothers,

One tiny detail was changed for the latest Mario & Luigi game, and only veteran players of the series will notice it. New players miss it altogether.

Mario and Luigi have two different types of weapons they can equip in Mario & Luigi: Brothership. First, the pair can only jump on enemies with a nice pair of boots. Second, they will unlock hammers that they can use to smash enemies into pieces with or rocks while exploring the various islands that they will sail to.